The Sleep Problem

Not getting enough sleep increases stress on your body and therefore leads to all sorts of issues like gaining weight, hormone imbalances, poor fertility levels, lack of libido, a low immune system and even hair loss, saggy dull skin and premature ageing.

Hormone imbalances that lead to sleep issues don’t just start when you try to get to sleep, nor can they be fixed by trying to address the problems at bed time.

Melatonin is the sleep hormone, and for proper melatonin function, your hormones need to be balanced during the hours that you are awake.

Sleep Problems During Waking Hours

To get the best sleep naturally at night time, you need to work on the factors that affect your sleep during the day such as the foods you eat, supplements you take, excursive and getting natural daylight.

Working towards a good night’s sleep starts the second you wake up from the previous night’s sleep so make sure that you get up at a regular time, preferably before 8am.

What To Avoid

Something important to note is that for a good night’s sleep, you need to stop eating at least 4 hours before you go to bed.

If you don’t your body will be working to digest the food which will keep you awake.

Avoiding caffeine is a must, as is refined sugar and you should also limit fruit in the evening as this contains natural sugars that can keep your mind busy.

Artificial fats such as vegetable oils can cause sleep issues as they can play havoc with the hormones, and as such these should be avoided, although they’re generally not recommended anyway.

Look out for signs that you could have a food allergy.

If your sleep issues derive from, for example, a strange feeling in your tummy at night, it could be a sign of a food allergy so it’s worth getting a food allergy test if you have sleep issues and can’t seem to resolve the issues with the other solutions.

5. Eating Habits

This might seem simple, but cutting out caffeine and vastly reducing sugar intake could seriously help to get you off to sleep faster and for longer.

There are also foods that can actually help with sleep, such as foods containing tryptophan, which is an amino acid that converts to serotonin.

Similarly, foods containing high levels of magnesium can help as often it is magnesium deficiency that causes common problems such as restless leg syndromes, cramps, anxiety and other problems - eat lots of seeds, dark leafy greens, almonds, cashew nuts and legumes for a magnesium rich diet.

Detoxing and eating raw foods can also help as the body is cleansed and can therefore function better.

6. Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is known for its ability to aid sleep and especially when you use lavender oil.

Lavender takes effect pretty fast too, so try having a lavender oil bath followed by a drop of lavender oil on the pillow, or a fresh lavender bag containing lavender under the pillow.

7. Natural Daylight

Natural light plays a big part in telling your body when to sleep and get up.

You can also get sunrise alarm clocks that imitate the slow increase of light at sunrise.

Even keeping the curtains open if you're not right beside a street lamp can help so that the room fills with light at sunrise.

8. Soft Music

Playing soft and gentle music at night while drifting off can help to get you off to sleep and can help to relax you and calm you into a sleepy state.

Perhaps start off listening to some gentle classical or meditation type music in the bath, then lay on the bed and continue listening while you relax - before you know it you'll probably be fast off so set a timer to turn the music off.

9. Acupuncture

Acupuncture is known for its many healing abilities, including its ability to remedy sleep problems and insomnia.

We offer acupuncture sessions here at Amchara as part of many of our detox retreats.

10. Exercise

If you struggle to drift off at night, try introducing a gentle exercise regime can help to reduce stress levels and muscle tension, and you may find that you'll sleep better.

Even a 10 minute jog around the block after tea or 15 minutes on an exercise bike can release that built up tension and help you to get a good night.

11. Ayurvedic Medicine

In Ayurvedic medicine (an ancient Indian form of natural medicine), one treatment for insomnia is to apply oil to the hands and feet.

Usually either coconut oil, mustard oil or sesame seed oil is used warmed to room temperature, applied to the hands and feet and then the patient rests for half an hour before bed.

12. Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine, it is believed that insomnia often comes from kidney energy weakness.

There are some herbal Chinese recipes to be able to fight this kind of insomnia, and often signs include back ache, fatigue, and irritability and usually spells of feeling wide awake late in the evening.

What A Great Reason To Sleep!

If you find your weight to be a troublesome issue, did you know it could be linked to not getting enough sleep?

We already knew that adults who sleep less than five or six hours a night are at higher risk of being overweight but it looks as though sleep could be truly intrinsic to our eating habits.

A study has found that losing just a few hours of sleep a few nights in a row can lead to almost immediate weight gain.

The best path to a healthy weight may be a good night’s sleep.

The study looked at how inadequate sleep over just one week, similar to when students cram for exams or when office workers stay up late to meet a deadline, affects a person’s weight, behaviour and physiology.

Interestingly, they found that getting only 5 hours of sleep increased metabolism but in spite of this, subjects gained weight, predominantly because they ate more than those who got 9 hours sleep.

By the end of the first week, those who were sleep deprived had gained an average of two pounds in weight.

They also found that when this was reversed so the same subjects went on to have 9 hours sleep the following week, they began to lose the weight they’d gained in the previous week although they still hadn’t returned to their original weight.

The disruption to sleep patterns had lead subjects to snack more after dinner and consume more calories in a bid to find comfort in replacement of their lost sleep.

Kenneth Wright director of Chicago university’s sleep and chronobiology laboratory, said, 'We found that when people weren’t getting enough sleep they over ate carbohydrate’ he said.